


Forgetting

by salamanderinspace



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Gen, Paranoia, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 02:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9153220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamanderinspace/pseuds/salamanderinspace
Summary: A droid preserves some memories of the rebellion.





	

It is twenty nine years after the Battle of Endor. A droid called RY-09 rolls toward the edge of a crater on the desolate moon, Jedha. He is a First Order recon droid, and his duty is to brave the rocky crags for the acquisition of knowledge. There are ruins here holding secrets that date to the golden days of Kyber-mining and Imperial weapons manufacture. RY will retrieve these secrets. He takes his mission seriously.

He is a newer make. All the Order's droids are new. RY does not know what they did before they kept droids, but the hands of the engineers are coarse and calloused and their cheeks are pale and hollow from long starvation. RY does not interpret this information. He only collects it.

Bumping along the dirt and gravel, RY's sensors detect precisely the sort of thing he's looking for: a battered holodisc. He cautiously documents the finding before he retrieves and examines the object for any markings. It is labelled and coded as a personal log. RY considers, for a moment, whether it would be best to copy a backup to his drive before preserving the original disc. Either option is risky. There is a .00001% chance that rendering a copy could corrupt the data. It is impossible, however, to calculate whether the original might degrade or be damaged further. In the end, RY is programmed for something like curiosity. He copies and reviews the data.

The disc does indeed contain a personal holo-record. An older man--worn, grey-beard, a little deranged--is staring despondently into the holo while he decants some storm of raving. He murmurs about a long-lost girl and enemies seen and unseen. The disc is damaged in several places but one segment recovers quite well:

"We live on the edge of oblivion, Bor Gullet and I," the old man is uploading. RY searches his drive for "Bor Gullet" and finds no data. 

"Just the two of us in a land of liars, traitors, and the waiting dead."

"We have friends elsewhere in the universe. They are not safe with us. We are not safe with them. No one is safe with each other in these times."

"This morning we are joined by a defecting Imperial pilot. My friend Bor Gullet will pull the lies from his head. They're together now, and I am almost envious; the look in the pilot's eyes as my friend embraces him is a look of fear and bliss. I understand this combination of emotion. There is a peace that comes with being certain of your own thoughts, but also a madness. One man by himself is always certain to hear his own voice speaking. Bor Gullet is a guide in the silence where truth lives. I watch his arms twist and flex and squeeze with something like awe."

"Yesterday my men organized action in Jedha and killed twenty Stormtroopers. There are fewer here now that the shipments of crystal seem to have stopped. This is not a good sign. It is an omen of death."

"Today I hold in my hand what is supposedly a message from Galen Erso. I remember when this man stood by my side in the struggle. Oh, I thought those were times of struggle. No! The true fight against power is the fight to remember those times. Then, it felt like one man alone could challenge the Empire. Today, I risk forgetfulness. My pain is very great. I am not present enough to hear this message and keep looking forward. I can be in the past, or I can be here. How will I know which is which?"

"No one will hear the message but myself. I wish I could run it by Bor Gullet, but my friend cannot touch a hologram. He cannot know if it is solid and real. Only I can make that choice. The weight of that is like this stone we huddle under. It will crush me."

"Or perhaps not. I must remember the cause, whatever it takes. The Alliance can be trusted to fight, that is true, but what will they do when the fighting stops? What will they build? What will they become?"

RY is intrigued. He is especially fascinated by this Bor Gullet. What sort of neuro-conditioning program can't interface with a hologram? Is the tool just a retrieval protocol, or does it store a database of "lies" as well? 

No more information can be collected. RY proceeds along the outer edge of the crater, scanning for further artifacts, but he finds nothing. He increases his pace by 15%. The mission must be completed quickly, as it is both dangerous and vital to the Order. RY once learned from an astromech that the Resistance is likely to comb these mid-rim worlds. They will seize and reprogram any recon units captured. 

RY feels no fear; he persists until the work is done.


End file.
